Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Some Questions Answered by Pedro

Originally, I was going to write down some personal thoughts about the recent Mood Pictures raid today. However, I have by now received a second email from Pedro, where he answers some questions I sent him and goes into more detail about the whole affair. So, instead of giving you my second-hand guessings about what I believe happened, I'm giving you Pedro's first-hand account of what, according to him, did (and didn't) happen.

Needless to say, I can't vouch for the truthfulness of Pedro's version of events, just as I can't vouch for the truthfulness of the police version - I may have my suspicions based on my own past experiences with Mood and plain common sense, but ultimately, I don't know what took place at that recent shoot, because I wasn't there! I am simply reprinting Pedro's answers here, verbatim and without comment, so that people can form their own opinions. Regardless of what ultimately comes out of this whole story, I believe it is only fair that Mood Pictures should get to state their own side of it, like anyone accused of wrong-doing. Since the mainstream press obviously isn't doing much balanced reporting (it rarely does about the subject of BDSM videos), I think we kinky bloggers should at least try to do better.

(Speaking of the mainstream press, I also found this article on the English website of the Budapest Times, thanks to Greg. It is shorter than the Hungarian ones translated so far, and it doesn't really say anything new, but at least is is an original, English-language source.)

Now for Pedro's email. Obviously, my questions are in italics, his answers are in normal text:

One translation I read says that the woman who went to the police was hired as a domina - not one of the spanked girls! The other translation says that it was one of the spanked girls. Can you tell me which version is correct?

Pedro: Definitely a sub. Please don't handle any articles [in the press as] 100% correct. There were many many lies in them.

For example, they mention strong security which required the SWAT team. Well, we had Popey [Mood's security guard during video shoots]. Extreme looking guy, but very lighthearted inside. They mention that we were keeping the tortured girls in boxes. Well, when they rushed in, we were making photoshots for mood art. One girl was in a box for the photoshooting. And the most important: The girl, who went to the police, did a very severe scene. But in the last 10 minutes of the scene she was not even tied. She was tied in the beginning of the scene, but shortly [afterwards] released. So that's another lie, that she was forced because she was tied.

There is also the claim in the article that you lied to the woman about the severity / reality of the spankings - she claims that she was told that it would be light and that she would only "play pain".

Pedro: No. Of course not. We do a pre-shooting and a post-shooting mini interview with each girls. At all pre-shooting interviews (which are always recorded), we always ask whether they are aware of that this will be very painful, and all whippings, canings are real? So we can prove this.

Do you have any idea why this girl at the Elite Pain shoot would go to the police to say things which, according to you, are not true?

Pedro: I can only guess. We were thinking about it quite a lot of time. What we know is that she went to the police only three days after the shooting. What we think is most likely, that she has a boyfriend or a husband. The girl did not tell the guy that she was going to go to an erotic movie shooting. Once the guy discovered the marks, he questioned the girl. The girl may have told that she was forced to do it, so the guy took her to the police. I repeat, I don't know why this happened, but this seems to be the most reasonable for me.

The girl also lied to the police that we have about 10 big security guys who keep the girls inside. Well, if you remember [the shoot last year], the girls was not forced to stay at all. And we have only Popey. So the whole police action was a silly thing. SWAT team for mood pictures??? I would laugh if it did not happen with us. But it did. They handcuffed even the girls. If you see the video [the TV footage], you can see the girls on the floor. Actually, they caused much bigger stress for those girls during the raid than we did to anyone. They even let the girl in the box bounded for about an hour. Normally the girl was going to be taken out by us for the next photo in a minute. These are the heroes of our police (as they mention in the newspaper). Twenty men with guns defeated the whole Mood Pictures staff.

And , to say all, I am most curious about...everything. Mistery has been always an important part of the evilish attraction around the magyar company. By the way, we still don't know _ or just I haven´t read _who are exactly the three charged people, and I assume that they are Pedro, Pablo, and Max Lomp, but I haven't any security about this particular matter. Perhaps it's just a subjective impression, but Mood and Elitepain were taking, so to speak, some remarkable developing paths at the moment they were raided. I was delighted following kinky people like Max and Suzie Muller ( I'm afraid her very promising career has been dramatically cut short ), because , in Ludwig's words, "It is, in truth, a vile, sinister, corrupting influence on one's immortal soul".I'm afraid I couldn't resist that kind of things. ;) But I am firmly convinced that my immortal soul is not a matter of hungarian police, as far as nothing is done against others free will. And that has been the point here; but I suggest keeping in mind that it is not the point for the authority. Never. Nor here,nor elsewhere.I think the company were growing up, building up a whole perverse and paralel world ( The Eliteclub), besides brand new "mainstream" label _"Mood Art"_. In a way, they have reached, and surpassed, a "critical mass", and it seems to me that they had not realized their actual, vulnerable legal position. In military therms,they had not acknowledged or prepared the battleground. And such a "corrupting influence" is a very easy prey for the authority, if you haven´t reached an agreement with it. Here are the SWATS, here are the handcuffed people laying on the floor. Here are the torture instruments; all on TV...There are the media reports. Where are the corpses?? If Pedro is telling the truth, and a filmed evidence exits, it´s impossible to prove the girl's story. But, after the assault, the message is sent to anybody. As Al Capone, I think Mood will fall because its fiscal irregularities or some other minor cause ,far away from hurting anybody or act against its models' will.At the end of the day, this is the definitive explanation that is becoming clearer to me.Sorry for my english, again. ;)

What if all that Pedro says turns out to be true, and is proved to be so in the footage in question? Say, the girl never even protested? Hypothetically, it is possible. And say the court rejcts the case as 'no criminal acts performed', and rules the vids to be legal. Then Mood could sue her for the economical loss they have suffered. Then, if they win in court and the girl cant pay? Mood would surely offer her an opportunity to pay up by giving her a role in all future films, until the compensation was paid.

On the other hand, the seized HDs may prove that Pedro lies. Also possible, but would he run that risk?This is going to be more exciting than Mad Men season 4.

@ frants: One would expect that such filmed evidence exists. After all, they were shooting a movie!

@ Lord Fafner: "Perhaps it's just a subjective impression, but Mood and Elitepain were taking, so to speak, some remarkable developing paths at the moment they were raided."

Yes, the very same thought occured to me. Ironically, they seemed to be moving away a bit from the single-minded "Harder, always harder!" track, at least branching out into some different areas. There was the new "Mood Art" site, which Pedro seemed to be very excited about, and he also wrote a fair bit to me about his newly discovered joy of working with genuinely kinky models, after Suzie Muller came along.

It all looked as if things were getting a bit more interesting again. It would have been exciting to see where it goes, but we will never know now.

As for the "vile, sinister, corrupting influence", I was being somewhat tongue-in-cheek when I wrote that (as I often am), so you shouldn't take it totally at face value. Yes, there is truth in it - Mood were a corrupting influence! -, but things are a bit more complicated than that.

@ conspiracyexpert: If you want a prediction from me how the whole case will turn out... It is mere speculation, of course, and not really my job, but here it goes:

Let's say that Pedro's version of events is true (and judging from my past experiences with Mood, I tend to believe him, certainly more than the version reported by the police / in the mainstream media). The court case would then not be about the model's accusations, as much as about the general question, were these videos legal in the first place? What level of injury can one legally consent to under Hungarian law? Or, an entirely different, but also interesting question: were Mood's finances in order?

That is where I, personally, see it all heading. Of course, I can only speculate, like everyone else. But this is my prediction at the moment.

Regarding Mood's finances I hope they are not so stupid and registered their Company somwhere in off-shore area. But one thing is completeley unclear for me - what happened with Mood's websites and earlier shot videos? If I understand correctly, they are hosted in US at Verizon Business but all the webs were down yet on Jan 25th. Does it mean that US authorities were also involved in the action? It's odd to admit that Verizon will suspend their loyal customer's accounts without proper order of US authorities.

Well Keemik, in the USA (land of the free and the brave) Kink.com are more afraid of their billing companies than of police and judges. To the extent that they last year blurred out whip stripes on a model's breasts, which occurred in a live show. Insex sold their company of fear of being shut out by all billing companies. But nothing has happened to Brutalmaster.com I think, and they have been bloodier than Mood at times. (I havent checked lately.)

thanks for all investigation so far (if to be called like this)...I can just say that it really shocked me when I have noticed that mood pictures closed down... they did some high quality stuff! Thats the one thing... The other thing is that of course they should be kept liable if they did something wrong - but this is not proved yet, so it's of course not our thing to judge about it... furthermore the only thing which keeps me interested in this topic is (and maybe ludwig can give a short answer...).. do you think that mood pictures will be able to go on in some time or what's your impression during the ongoing correspondence with pedro?? Of course, just in case they do not get accused....also sorry for my english - i know its not the best...

Yes, I can fully imagine that the processing providers and other billing companies may be one of the weakest links in this business chain and they can also be raided easily - e.g. eGold case. But in our situation I don't beleive that US host will suspend any account only because somwhere far away the hungarian police took any action. So, most probably, the producers have turned their websites off themself. In this case it's really odd that no information has been posted online for their customers - a short courtesy notification about the "force majeur" and its matter would be more than welcome, I think...

@frants: "Well Keemik, in the USA (land of the free and the brave) Kink.com are more afraid of their billing...."As an American I have to agree.....I thought things in Europe are just the same.....well In Germany it might be, as Ludwig explained that things are relatively clear in germany....but in Hungary...?!?! I don't know!!

I was swamped with work the last weeks and had to take a break from blogging. A few belated replies:

@ Anonymous: "do you think that mood pictures will be able to go on in some time or what's your impression during the ongoing correspondence with pedro??"

Well, at the beginning of the whole affair, Pedro wrote: "I don’t think we will do anything like Mood in the future. So I think Mood Pictures is over." As of now, though, there is a "Coming Back Soon!" message at the old Mood Pictures URL. I don't know what that is about. I'll ask Pedro for a comment.

@ frants: "Any comments from Pedro on the message in http://mood-pictures.com/ about being back soon?"

Not yet, but as I said above, I'll ask him.

@ PolarBoy: "What film are we talking about - in what production did this take place?"

The film in which the alleged abuse took place was never released, to my knowledge. The police raid happened not too long after the shoot, and before the video could be released.

She has worked as a domme for Mood and for their sister site Mood Castings. You can see her thrashing (rather ugly) men at Cruel Amazons, as "Mistress Kyra", which seems to be her F/M identity. Oh, and she did some videos for "Caned 4 Cash", a producer that went out of business and is no longer online as far as I know.

As of 20 July 2019 how many of the women we have seen in Mood Pictures / Elite Pain are still with the companies. Were these women 1 hit Wonders ( no pun intended)? Also it seems like Maya is the most common name with these women.

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